Radical Philosophy Review

ONLINE FIRST

published on March 18, 2016

Graeme Reniers

“End of Ideology” and the “Crisis of Marxism”
Locating One-Dimensional Man

Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man is framed as a response to the “end of ideology” thesis of political equilibrium and a criticism of mainstream theoretical construction in advanced industrial countries. Such formulations obscured new forms of self-alienation in totally administered society, and replaced any conceived potential subjectivity with objective laws that govern social relations. One-Dimensional Man is also framed as a response to the “crisis of Marxism” by underscoring the importance of popular ideology in shaping subjective action, which at present, precludes proletarian revolution.